The Bloody Mary Club: ABC Cocina

A Brief History of the Bloody Mary Club: Living in New York City is full of pros but there are a few cons – mainly it can take an hour to travel ten miles. Two of my best friends, Richa & Iris (hi guys!), live on the Other Islands – Staten Island and Long Island. While these ladies are such troopers for surviving a long commute to work every day, it is hard for us to find time to see each other. Last year, we committed to a monthly brunch, so that we’d see each other at least once a month.

The Bloody Mary Club, from Left to Right: Richa, Jessica, Iris

You know it’s true love when your friends are willing to wake up at 9am in order to make it to brunch by noon. (Richa is usually late though.) Richa and Iris love Bloody Marys as much as I do, so our monthly brunches quickly turned into a running tally and ranking of all the different Bloody Marys that we’ve tried together. After half a year, I’ve finally decided to get it together and start documenting our drinks and our opinions. We all like our drinks slightly differently, so we often end up picking very different things. No complaints here, it makes it possible to try a bunch of cocktails. Onto the drinks!

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For April brunch, we went to Jean-George’s ABC Cocina. This is the newer sister to ABC Kitchen, which is right next door. It is a modern and trendy space that pays a lot of attention to the details. Everything was concrete and reclaimed wood and barnacles (trust me, it looked pretty great) and all in-line with the ABC Home aesthetic. We ordered WAY too much food, but somehow managed to eat it all. The highlights were the crispy fish tacos, the spring pea guacamole, and the churros. Next time I go back, that may be all I order, and no, I won’t be sharing with anyone! However, the pina coladas that we ordered were so disgusting that no one could take more than one sip. I’ve never sent something back before, but we really considered it this time.

The Bloody Mary was called a “Sherry Mary” which was a combination of sherry, tomato juice, mystery spices, and a lemon wedge. I saw a few people putting drops of the famous habanero hot sauce into the drink as well, but I found the Sherry Mary to be a great balance as is. Although I am not a huge fan of sherry, it added just the right amount of sweetness to offset the tart tomato juice. It was a great consistency – a tiny amount of tomato pulp, without feeling like you had to chew your drink (ew!) I got a drink at the bar while I waited for Richa and Iris to show up, and mine was so good that Richa immediately ordered one too! Richa said the Sherry Mary was: “The perfect combination of sherry and tomato; it was slightly spicy and slightly sweet.” Iris added that there was a good portion-size too. Overall, a real crowd-pleaser at our table. We are going to be a little predictable and try ABC Kitchen next month – stay tuned!

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Cheat Sheet:
Liquor Base: Sherry
Viscosity/Texture: The perfect thickness! Jean-Georges knows what he’s doing!
Spice: It was flavorful and spicy enough for me, but adventurous people would probably want an extra splash of habanero sauce.
Fixin’s: A lemon wedge
Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5